Pages

Thursday, September 22, 2011

From Prada to Nada (2011)

Nora and Mary have grown up living the good life in Beverly Hills. After the death of their beloved father, they discover that the financial crisis has hit their family more than they knew and there is nothing left of the family fortune. They also discover a secret half-brother, Gabe Jr., that their father neglected to tell them about. Gabe takes over the family home in order to renovate it up and put it up for sale. His evil wife Olivia does have an attractive brother, Edward. Nora and Mary move to the East side of Los Angeles to live with their Aunt Aurelia and try to figure out a way to make their fortune.

Nora is a law student who has a slight flirtation with Edward, but doesn’t seem to recognize the fact that he is enamored with her. She stops going to school to take a part time job in a law firm to help support the family. Mary continues on in college and falls in love with her suave TA, Rodrigo Fuentes, while not noticing homeboy Bruno has a crush on her. Will the girls find true love?

I thought From Prada to Nada was adequate, but wasn’t that great of a movie or as a Sense and Sensibility adaptation. To me the bar for a straightforward Austen movie was set by the Sense and Sensibility movie of 1995 starring Emma Thompson, and an adaptation bar was set by Clueless (1995) and Bridget Jones’ Diary (2001). From Prada to Nada could not touch these movies even remotely.

First of all, the movie wavered on its theme, was it a Sense and Sensibility remake or a getting in touch with your Latina roots movie? It seemed to go back and forth between the two. Secondly, there was zero chemistry between any of the romantic couples. I loved Edward, but he did not have any chemistry with Nora. The love stories were all cute, but didn’t carry any emotional impact with me. I didn’t feel for Nora or Mary ever in the movie. I think overall, a poor script and poor acting contributed to make this a rather sad Austen modernization.